“O God, who on the holy mount revealed to chosen witnesses your well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening: Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith behold the King in his beauty; who with you, O Father, and you, O Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”
Collect for the Feast of the Transfiguration
How do you commemorate life’s most important events? Many families host parties on birthdays, special dinners on anniversaries, and receptions after funerals. Korean families often mark the 100th day after their child’s birth with a baek-il, Mexican parents celebrate their daughter’s coming of age with a quinceañera, and the Malagasy honor their deceased kin with “the turning of the bones.” Across cultures, and from time immemorial, humans have found it important to mark significant occasions.
Nations do the same. Governments register holidays and install monuments to commemorate their history. In the Northeastern United States, placards denoting significant events in the life of the country are ubiquitous. Signposts mark that the Continental Congress convened in these halls, Aaron Burr dueled Alexander Hamilton in this neighborhood, and George Washington slept under this roof.
During the time of Jesus, the nation of Israel commemorated the mighty acts of God in its history. One remembrance was the Feast of Tabernacles. On these festival days, Jews would sleep outdoors in tents to recall the forty year wilderness wanderings of their ancestors. Their forebears were pilgrims on the move, and their contemporaries needed a tangible reminder that God was with them there.
Today’s collect mentions one such attempt at commemoration during the life of Jesus. “On the holy mount” where Christ was “wonderfully transfigured,” the apostle Peter offered to build tabernacles to mark the important occasion. Something miraculous had happened here. Moses and Elijah, the leader of the wilderness wanderings and the archetypal prophet, respectively, had suddenly appeared in the disciples’ midst. Jesus, adorned in “in raiment white and glistening,” was declared God’s “well-beloved son.” On this spot, Christ was revealed as God himself who “became flesh, and tabernacled among us.” How could Peter not erect a marker?
Only Jesus did not let Peter commemorate the Transfiguration that day. He would not allow it because he knew that the disciples would think that God had come to tabernacle with humanity in its glory. Peter was prohibited from marking the mighty act until after the crucifixion, when it became clear that God had instead pitched his tent in the midst of humanity’s ruined habitation, so that he might redeem and renew our nature.
On this side of the Cross, the meaning of the Transfiguration is not all that different from that of the Incarnation. Christ has tabernacled with us in our history, which includes the worst parts of our story. In the places where you feel most embarrassed and ashamed, God has pitched his tent there. In the spaces where you don’t have it together and don’t measure up, there’s a placard that reads, “Jesus slept here.” And this means that these areas of your life are now sacred. These are the places where God meets you.
On this Transfiguration Day, we get to mark what Peter couldn’t all those years ago. We celebrate that the God of the universe tabernacled among us “in his beauty,” so that he might glorify our fractured nature from the inside out. This is something to commemorate: God slept here!
Dear Ben--THANK YOU for this post!! I've been going through my own dark time, with dealing with cancer and diabetes. It is good to know 'God slept here'.
Ben, Thank you for these words!